Mechanically tunable elastomer and cellulose nanocrystal composites as scaffolds for in vitro cell studies

Abstract

Composites based on ε-caprolactone-d,l-lactide-based elastomer with cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) are investigated to understand how matching cells with appropriate mechanical environments can provide important insights into fundamental cell behaviors.

The importance of structure property relationship for the designing of biomaterials using liquid crystal elastomers

“…We demonstrated that our elastomer/CNC composites were stable for 15 weeks before major degradation set in 6arm-PCL based elastomer making these composites more resistant to degradation. 82 Further studies utilizing the approach of preparing LCE/CNC composites to better understand the how the LCE's mechanical properties and anisotropy affect cell behavior are underway.…”

“…81 Thus the stiffness and strength of scaffold materials be thoroughly considered and prepared in a way to ensure a better match to the host cell or tissue of interest. 82 All mechanical properties of cells are usually founded by cytoskeletal elements that consist of mainly of actin and intermediate filaments, and microtubules. 83 Each of these components responds differently to mechanical deformations and varies from tissue.…”

“…118,119 Knowing all the excellent properties of CNC, we proposed a binary composite of CNC constituent that is incorporated at several weight% (wt%) ratios to our biopolymeric scaffold material quickly enabling the tunability of the mechanical properties to match those of tissues of interest. 80,82 To study the mechanical properties of our LCEs, we started by preparing elastomer/cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) composites. The addition of CNCs to the elastomer mix increased bulk stiffness of the composite relative to the pure 6-arm ecaprolactone-based star copolymer (6-arm-PCL) based elastomer, its dependency is seen to be exponential.…”

“…118,119 Knowing all the excellent properties of CNC, we proposed a binary composite of CNC constituent that is incorporated at several weight% (wt%) ratios to our biopolymeric scaffold material quickly enabling the tunability of the mechanical properties to match those of tissues of interest. 80,82…”

Molecular insights on the crystalline cellulose-water interfaces via three-dimensional atomic force microscopy

“…The work of Rånby went mostly unnoticed, but the field was revived in 1992 when Gray and colleagues ( 9 ) found that CNCs form a chiral nematic liquid-crystalline order in water. Over the past 25 years, the field of CNCs has exploded ( 5 , 10 ), and these fascinating rod-shaped nanomaterials have been explored for a wide variety of applications, including rheology modifiers ( 11 ), composite structures ( 12 ), drug delivery ( 13 ), cell scaffolds ( 14 ), flexible organic electronics ( 15 ), tissue engineering ( 16 ), and photonic materials ( 17 ), and as templates for fabricating iridescent glass and other materials with chiral structures ( 18 ).…”